GRP - Andorra (part V) скачать в хорошем качестве

GRP - Andorra (part V)

GRP days 12 - 13, Sunday to Monday, September 4 - 5, 2022 Refugi Comapedrosa to Andorra la Vella Yesterday Clarahad moved us to a room with 6 beds and told us we'd have it to ourselves. Upon our return from Pic Comapedrosa we were surprised to find there were another three people there. About 20 people had shown up, unexpectedly. We ate breakfast with Daniel and Lisa who lived near Cologne, Germany. We finally bade farewell to Clara and Refugi Comapedrosa at 9.30 am. Full board,(sleeping in the refuge plus breakfast, lunch and dinner) for two days, plus wine and beer, cost €220. We soon caught up with a group of five day-hikers. "Can I ask you one question?", one of them asked me. "Where is Pic Comapedrosa?". I pointed in the opposite direction. He was incredulous, then said, "We're going the wrong way!". Oh, but there is no wrong way, I told him. Only different ways. I showed him how they could follow the ridge around and connect to Pic de Comapedrosa. It looked like a super ridge route. If we had enjoyed weather yesterday like we had today, that's what we'd have done. That's what they opted to do but before they took off the same guy said to me, "Can I ask you one question?" Sure. I figured this would actually be his fourth question, so I was laughing already. He said, "How old are you?" We're getting asked this a lot. Carrying my backpack I was faster than they were carrying only day packs. It must have been all that training in Colorado. A little further we caught up with Theresa, Aida, and Biel just before they took off in a different direction. Theresa's and Aida's backpacks were significantly heavier than ours, even though they had only come up to stay and eat, at the refuge. We enjoyed spending some time with them. Aida's husband had stayed home with their youngest son. Further on, we followed a balcony route through the forest, interrupted when we came to a part of the Val Nord ski area where there was a large piece of artwork, "Storm in a Teacup" that we recognized from our first trip to Andorra in 2016. The explanation reads, "The hidden magic that is latent in the forces of nature inverts the logic of problems. On this large scale, a big problem in a small context becomes a small problem in a big context." There was a restaurant nearby but, with no rabbit or duck on the menu, we gave it a miss. Around 3 pm we reached Collada Montaner (2,076m) where there's a cabin. This wasn't an official Andorran refuge. It was in a bit of a state of disrepair, but there were chairs, tables, and a flat spot to pitch our tent so we opted to spend our last night on the GRP here. There was a bucket lined with a trash bag that had filled with rainwater pouring off the roof but we didn't need to touch it. It was cold and damp in the morning. I didn't want to get out of the sleeping bag, but Patsy finally managed to cajole me out of it. We had very little food left. We ate breakfast and packed up. It was immediately a very steep climb up to Pic d'Enclar, 2,383m. We followed a fabulous ridge route over to Bony de la Pica, 2,402m, our last summit on the GRP. We thought we had it made so I boiled water to make coffee and we relaxed on the summit, savouring the views. When we set off again the route wound very steeply downhill. It wound all over creation and we kept losing the trail. This particular trail, although part of the GRP, appeared to have fallen into disuse. The red-orange paint splashes had faded almost to non-existence on the rocks but were still visible on the trees. There was no water and there were no flat spots on which one could pitch a tent. What we thought would be a 3-hour descent actually took us 6 hours. Had we not wanted to arrive at the hotel I'd booked around noon, or in the early afternoon, we'd have continued yesterday expecting to reach the hotel around 6 pm. We were badly mistaken. As it turned out we didn't finish the descent today until 2.30 pm. Had we continued beyond the cabin yesterday we would have been in a world of hurt. We would not have made it down before dark and with no water and no flat places to pitch a tent we could have been in big trouble. We were cosmically fortunate. Once down, and having completed the GRP loop, we made our way to Intersport in Santa Coloma where we bought four freeze-dried dinners and a 1 lb CampingGaz canister of fuel. Curiously, they kept all the food hidden in the back of the store and only produced a selection by request. Our next stop was the Tourist Office. Upon presentation of our refuge stamp impressions they gave us each a commemorative Andorra cap. I thought we deserved a medal as this is the toughest 80 miles we've ever walked. Finally, just after 5 pm, we checked into the Exe Princep**** hotel, €66 incl. breakfast. We did it, although it took us almost twice as long as we'd expected. To learn more about hiking and other activities in Andorra, plus the GPX: https://visitandorra.com/en/nature/gr...